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Suicide among African Americans occurs at about half the rate with
which it occurs among white Americans. Why is the black rate of
suicide so much lower, particularly when one considers the effects
of racism and other socio-economic factors on African Americans?
One answer that has been offered is that churches within the
African-American community have a greater influence than among
white Americans and that they provide amelioration of social forces
that would otherwise lead to suicide. To date no other book has
provided an in-depth ethnographic study of the buffering effect of
the black church against suicide. Findings from Early's study
indicate that there is a consensus within the black community in
terms of its attitudes and beliefs toward suicide. Early concludes
that suicide is alien to underlying African-American belief systems
and a complete denial of what it means to be black. This important
study will be invaluable to sociologists and others studying
contemporary race relations and social problems.
In the last 15 years, the prison population in the U.S. increased
by more than 188 percent. The increase has been fueled largely by
increases in the number of individuals convicted of drug-related
offenses. These offenders constitute a disproportionate number of
recidivists who, in turn, are responsible for a relatively large
proportion of criminal activity in our society. The vast majority
of these offenders were arrested for committing violent crimes, and
most of the offenders are poor, unemployed, uneducated, come from
dysfunctional families, and are African-American. Contrary to
public opinion, many of these offenders are tired of their
"revolving door" relationship with the police, courts, and
correctional institutions. However, without appropriate social and
therapeutic support, there is little hope of altering their
behavior. This volume seeks to address specific issues relevant to
prisons in America and includes contributions by practitioners in
the field of prison-based drug treatment and therapy programs. The
work is an important contribution to the literature examining the
extent to which rehabilitation (i.e., prison-based drug treatment
programs) has effectively reduced recidivism, drug relapse, and
violent crime in our society.
This study examines the legal discrimination suffered in the United
States by children born out of wedlock. The authors analyze the
Supreme Court's equal protection birth status decisions from 1968
to 1992 and, in a case-by-case analysis, trace the development of
the Court's rulings, examine the pattern of equal protection tests
utilized, and evaluate the consistency of the Court's position. In
addition, the work examines the related discrimination suffered by
the families of non-marital children, especially single parents and
alternative family units, and concludes that it is impossible to
gain full equality for children born out of wedlock unless equality
is also gained for their family unit. Toward these ends, the
authors suggest a feminist jurisprudence as a methodology for
addressing the underlying issue at the crux of birth status
distinctions.
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